This invention relates to non-woven fabrics, and in particular to a non-woven washcloth having blend of two sizes of polyester fibers.
The assignee of the present application, Sage Products, Inc. of Cary, Ill., has been marketing and selling, for years, a needle-punched, nonwoven product sold under Sage's trademark “COMFORT BATH”. The nonwoven washcloth of the Comfort Bath product is a blend of two fibers, lyocell fibers and polyester fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,973 discloses a similar-such product.
Sage Products, Inc. has also developed a disinfectant delivery system and method of providing alcohol-free disinfection, and is the owner of two co-pending U.S. patent applications related thereto, Ser. No. 10/435,898, filed May 12, 2003 and Ser. No. 10/435,902, also filed May 12, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,066,916. The disclosures of these two applications are incorporated herein by reference.
One of the ingredients of the disinfectant delivery system of the two incorporated applications is chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG). CHG is a highly effective broad-spectrum topical antiseptic. It is effective against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, and exhibits the property of persistence, providing protection for hours beyond an initial application. CHG exhibits a cumulative property that improves efficacy after multiple applications, and is well tolerated by human skin. It is considered to be a premier topical antiseptic ingredient used by the healthcare community.
A problem with CHG and CHG blends is that they tend to chemically or mechanically bind with certain fibers. One such fiber is lyocell which, when used in a blend such as that of U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,973, results in the CHG being bound and not properly released. Lyocell is hydrophyllic. Thus, a washcloth while having appropriate properties of wet strength, softness and loft is needed that will not allow CHG to chemically or mechanically bind to the fiber, as with lyocell, but rather be released in a controlled manner. Polyester fiber based non-woven washcloths exhibit an ability to fully release CHG since the fibers are hydrophobic in nature.